Hindsight is Rose-Tinted
by PuppetMaster55
Summary: In the wake of the failed retrieval mission, 13-year-old Uzumaki Naruto recovers in the hospital. Twenty years later, Nanadaime hokage Uzumaki Naruto finds an old seal of the Nidaime's, a prototype of the hiraishin, accidentally activating it. Past meets future, and the more Naruto learns about his future, the more he wants to change it. Time travel.
1. Waking Up

Naruto woke up on the cold tiles of the hospital. He grumbled, cracking open an eye to glare at the bed, to find that there was no bed. More importantly, he was in a hallway. Groaning onto his knees, Naruto looked one way, then the other. It looked like the hospital, certainly, although not a part of the hospital he was familiar with. Most suspiciously, Naruto didn't spot anyone else in the hallway, or even a bed he could have fallen out of.

"What the hell," he muttered, getting to his feet. He walked over to the nearest door, sliding it open. Naruto frowned at the supply closet, shutting the door. If that side didn't have a window – and he was pretty sure supply closets weren't put on the side of the hospital that had windows – then it stood to reason that the other side had a room with a window. If he knew what part of the hospital he was in, then it would be easy to find reception. Naruto felt great, ready to leave and go on that training trip with Pervy Sage.

Just as soon as he figured out where he was.

Naruto walked over to a door, the panel beside it numbering it as 643 (he glanced back and bit back a curse when he saw the door he'd opened had a sign labeling it as a supply closet), and wondered if the hospital even _had_ a sixth floor.

Shrugging it off, because who had time to think about those things when there was training to be done, and Sasukes to be retrieved – okay, just the one Sasuke, because the idea of there being more than one Sasuke was so, _so_ creepy. Now he had the image of a forest full of Sasuke's all giving him that same sneering look.

Naruto shuddered. What was he thinking about before that? He couldn't remember.

He slid the door open, squinting a little as his eyes adjusted to the afternoon light.

His first thought was that this was some sort of dream, but then he dismissed it. His dreams usually weren't this strange. Hokage mountain had extra faces on it – Granny Tsunade's, then Kakashi-Sensei's next to it (with both eyes, strangely), and... Naruto squinted. It... was that... _him_?

The awesome that was him as Hokage almost made up for the creepy pillars of glass stretching into the sky atop the mountain. Or the fact that the _entire village_ was made up of those kinds of buildings, styles that he expected to find in a civilian town. Naruto barely remembered some class on how civilian tech didn't react well in hidden villages. He couldn't remember what it was about, exactly, but he did remember that these kinds of buildings, this kind of tech, couldn't be in Konoha.

Which meant this _wasn't_ Konoha.

Naruto slowly backed away from the window, much more aware of his surroundings than before. He was unarmed, in a place that looked like some disturbing copy of Konoha. The last thing he remembered was going to sleep in a hospital bed in Konoha.

If it was a dream, then how could he wake up? And if it wasn't a dream, then what was going on?

Shikamaru's retelling of his battle made Naruto pause. He recalled his friend talking about fighting someone who used genjutsu. Whatever he needed to do to get back to reality, it would have to be a way to wake up, either out of sleep or break out of the genjutsu, or both.

Naruto groaned, gripping his head, and pressing against a side wall. He was terrible with genjutsu! He couldn't even break out of that one that had been used during the invasion, how could he–

 _Shikamaru!_

Naruto recalled the broken finger, and Shikamaru's chuckle as he said that pain was a surefire way to break a genjutsu when in a bind. Pain would break a genjutsu, and it was also a way to wake up!

Holding up his right arm, Naruto opened his mouth. Teeth stopped inches from his hand. If this _was_ a genjutsu, then he would need both hands to fight with. Even more if he was awake.

He moved his arm, and bit down, hard, on his forearm. He tasted blood, and pulled away. His arm hurt, but nothing changed.

Naruto unwrapped some of the gauze on his chest, rewrapping it around his bleeding arm, a frown on his face. So. Not a dream. Which left a genjutsu. Probably scary powerful, if pain wasn't enough to break it. How else could he break it?

Naruto slid down into a crouch. "Genjutsu. Why did it have to be genjutsu." He sighed. "Pain didn't work. Alright, so... genjutsu works by messing with your chakra. It uses your own chakra to power it, which means..." Naruto smiled. "I can just channel all my chakra! But then I'd die." His smile fell away. "I need a _lot_ of chakra, enough that I might die, but without– that's it!"

Naruto jumped up, hands forming the Rat seal as he closed his eyes. He managed to draw on it before, and now that he knew where to search inside of him, he could get it faster. He just needed to pull on Kyuubi's chakra until he managed to overload the genjutsu and have it break all on its own! Simple.

He felt chakra building up inside, more and more and more, until it began to hurt. He dug deeper, searching for the sea of red underneath all the yellow. He pushed more and more chakra to the surface, past the point of pain, and felt like he was about to die.

The red chakra was like a breath of fresh air, supercharging the air and blowing out the lights. The windows cracked, as well as the floor beneath Naruto's feet, and he held onto it for as long as he could. The sheer power he was wielding was drowning him, and for almost a minute he held his breath. The need to breathe gave way to breaking the genjutsu, and Naruto's legs buckled as his chest heaved. He felt shaky, but not from exhaustion. It was energy, excitement, a surplus of energy that needed to be burned off.

The door opened, and Naruto was too late in getting back to his feet. It was a woman, lines on her face, dark hair streaked with gray. Naruto knew this woman, although she hadn't been quite so old (a horrified part of his mind figured she was as old as Tsunade was supposed to be).

Shizune gasped. "Boruto? What are you doing? How did you get here? And... what are you wearing?"

Naruto frowned, standing as tall as he could, as proud as he could. Well, as proud as he could, given that he was wearing a hospital gown and covered in bandages. "Who the hell is Boruto?"

Shizune put a hand to her face, letting out a horrified gasp. "N-naruto?" She shook her head. "I– someone needs to get Sakura! Get Sakura!" Shizune called out behind her, and Naruto took her divided attention as his chance. He leaped toward the cracked window, hands forming the seal for shadow clones.

Naruto would leap out the window, covering his landing with at least a dozen clones heading out in as many directions. He would regroup in an alley a couple blocks away – there was a family with a genin kid his age about five blocks south; it wouldn't take much to snag some of the son's clothes, dump the bandages and gown, and then decide if he wanted to try to leave this place, or go for the Hokage tower. If there was gonna be an evil boss somewhere in this false Konoha, then it would certainly be there.

Or at least, that was the plan, if there hadn't been a flash of light and an arm wrapping itself around his chest.

Squirming in his captor's grip, Naruto was lifted off the ground and came face to face with the new person. Blue eyes met blue, and Nanadaime Hokage Uzumaki Naruto frowned. "It's me. A little me."

"Naruto!" Shizune squeaked, looking from older to younger. "But– but he's–"

"Me?" The older Naruto finished – Naruto mentally dubbed him, in whatever part of his mind wasn't blanking at coming face to face with an older version of himself, with his title of Hokage. Hokage nodded, giving Naruto a once-over. He put a hand on Naruto's jaw, turning the teen's head one side to the other. "A younger me, probably when I was, what, thirteen? That is weird. Guess I figured out what that Seal does."

"What's going on here?" Naruto asked, confused about what just happened.

"Well, little me," Hokage began, waving a hand at the cracked windows. "Welcome to the future."


	2. White Lies

**So I've plotted out the fic, and it should come down to seven chapters. Expect the next update before October.**

* * *

Naruto shivered in the chilled air of the room. He became intimately aware that all he was wearing as a hospital gown over a pair of boxers after Shizune had produced a set of children's patient scrubs (a pair he was sure he was supposed to have been wearing, but for Tsunade wanting to do one last check before he'd fallen asleep and woken up in... the future.

Because that was where he was, apparently. Hokage had greeted Naruto into the future before Shizune handed over the scrubs, and Naruto had tried to get both Hokage and Shizune to leave so he could change, but where Shizune had agreed, Hokage hadn't.

"I forgot how small I was back then," Hokage said with a smile, and got the gown thrown in his face. He grabbed at it, folding the fabric as he frowned. "And how short-tempered.

"So this is the future." Naruto said, mostly to keep the conversation away from his body as he slipped the shirt over his head.

"Yes." Hokage nodded.

"Not a genjutsu."

"Nope." Hokage shook his head.

"Then how did I get here?" He asked, pulling up the pants. Naruto stared at Hokage suspiciously. He still wasn't entirely convinced that it wasn't a genjutsu of some sort. Or at least some really, _really_ strange dream. "Was it Orochimaru? Because I don't think this is what Sasuke's brother meant when he said those Akatsuki guys wanted to take me."

"Actually..." Hokage grinned, sheepish. "It was me."

Naruto paused, the drawstrings on his pants half-tied. He leveled a disbelieving stare at Hokage. "You?"

"Yeah." Hokage nodded, setting the folded gown on the bed, and sitting beside it. "I was digging through Dad's notes on the hiraishin, and since his version was based on the Nidaime's, there were old notes on the Nidaime's technique mixed in. So I was looking through Dad's notes on the Nidaime's notes, and–"

"Wait." Naruto interrupted. "D-dad? I– we have a– you know who, who he is?"

Hokage's gaze softened, the edges of his lips tilting in something Naruto almost called a smile. "Yeah. It'll be a couple years for you, but one day you'll find out."

"Why can't I find out _now_?" Naruto whined. "Wait, does this mean... do you know who M-mom is?"

Hokage nodded. "I can't tell you, for a lot of reasons, but Mom and Dad... they wanted us to know that they loved us so, _so_ much."

Naruto leaned against the wall, arms dropping to his sides. He felt faint. He had parents. He had parents who _loved him_.

It almost made up for the fact that Hokage couldn't tell Naruto who they were.

Naruto let out a heavy breath. "Why can't I know about them?"

"Because," Hokage sighed. "When you come from is very... look, I don't even know the geopolitics of it all, but when you come from? The Hidden Villages aren't friends."

"Geopoli–" Naruto shook his head. He wished Sakura was there, because she would nod like she understood and ask for the details he didn't know; probably she didn't know either, but either way Naruto would learn and he wouldn't have to ask and feel dumb for having to ask. "Whatever. I'll just get strong and kick their asses. I mean, _you_ did, if you know. You probably kicked the asses of all the other Kage, just because you could, right?"

"Actually, I'm pretty good friends with the other Kage." Hokage scratched his cheek with a bandaged hand. Now that Naruto noticed, Hokage's entire right arm seemed to be covered in bandages. If they were the same person, then Hokage would only bandage his arm if it was hurt.

He frowned at that statement. "So... you didn't kick ass?"

"I kicked butt," Hokage assured Naruto. "But not the other Kage. Except for, like, the Kazekage. But that was years ago and he needed it. We became great friends because of it, actually."

Naruto tilted his head. The Kazekage... that was Suna's version of the Hokage. What sort of person would need Naruto to kick their butt?

"I should call Sakura, get her to give you a once-over," Hokage mused, after opening the door and peering this way and that. Shizune and two other medics bustled past, leaving Hokage standing alone in the doorway. He turned back into the room, frowning. "She's usually on top of this kinda stuff."

Naruto peeked between the medics as they ran all sorts of diagnostic jutsu. One had produced a clipboard, filling it out with all the details that Shizune and the other medic listed off. "Sakura? Why would she be here?"

"Sakura's the director of the hospital, Naruto." Shizune gently explained, while Hokage reached into his pants pocket and pulled out...

"What is that?" Naruto watched as the orange block-like object, rectangular and thin, was put into Hokage's left hand. Hokage swiped his thumb across one side of it, then tapped at different spots. The thumb swiped again, twice to the left, tapped, swiped up (Naruto assumed, given how Hokage held the block), and tapped twice. Hokage held the block up to his ear. "Hey, answer me! What is that!"

"Sakura!" Hokage said, sounding like he was greeting someone. Hokage winced. "Yeah, I know it's early, but! There's kind of a situation here at the hospital– no no! Nobody's dead! Boruto's... well, he's Boruto. Himewari's alright. Hinata as well. ...really? You really think if this was about Sarada, I'd tell you over the phone?"

Naruto blinked, surprised, as Hokage's face fell. Who or whatever Sarada was, he could almost hear Sakura's deadpan _yes_ directed at Hokage. He suspected that the block, whatever it really was, was some new kind of radio. He marveled at how portable it was, before frowning. The radios he remembered using for missions were just as good, so why would they mess with a good thing?

"Anyway," Hokage continued. "So you remember yesterday when I mentioned digging into Dad's hiraishin notes, because then the whole day could've gone differently? Yeah, I found this thing in the Nidaime's notes and _may_ have activated a Seal– yes, I'm fine. And so is the me from twenty years ago. ...you did hear me right. I'm looking right at a little twelve year old me."

"I'm thirteen!" Naruto protested, but Hokage ignored the outburst. He humphed, crossing his arms and turning to Shizune. With a jerk of his head at Hokage, Naruto said, "So what's with the radio Hokage me is talking into? And why's he talking to Sakura? Shouldn't Granny be radioed?"

"Lady Tsunade is retired," Shizune answered. "Sakura replaced her as the head of the hospital shortly before Lord Rokudaime's retirement. Many were surprised it took Lady Tsunade so long, considering how quickly Sakura's skill improved in the wake of the Fourth World War."

"Fourth War?" Naruto knew that this was future stuff, since he was pretty sure the big invasion that stopped the Chunin Exams wasn't a war, and that Sakura definitely wasn't a medic the last he remembered. "When was this? Was this when Hokage me kicked the Kazekage's butt? Did we win? Wait. If he – I am the Nanadaime, and Granny's the Godaime..." Naruto ticked them off with his fingers, then looked up, horrified. "Granny _died_?!"

"No!" Shizune shook her head, giving Hokage a panicked look. "Lady Tsunade is very alive, and enjoying her retirement. As for the Fourth War... I really shouldn't be telling you any of this. We don't know how it might affect..."

"What?" Naruto whined, face dropping. "Why can't I be told these things? I could change stuff! If I kick the Kazekage's butt earlier, maybe the Fourth War wouldn't happen. I could change the future," Naruto whispered, eyes glazing over as he imagined all the future events he could stop, or change entirely.

"You're not changing a thing, kiddo," Hokage said, tapping at the radio and slipping it back into his pocket. Naruto silently promised to sneak it later, figure out just what made it so much better than the old radios. "Yeah, there was a lot of bad stuff that happened, but we can't change the past for a perfect future. The world isn't perfect, and if you say it should be, then I'd have to knock sense into you like I did O– uh, the guy behind the Fourth War. And no," Hokage held up the bandaged hand, stopping Naruto's question, "he wasn't the Kazekage."

"Oh," Naruto sighed, crestfallen. "So, how long have you been Hokage?" He figured that, at the very least, that Hokage had to have been Hokage for a long time, to be so awesome. Maybe Hokage had been promoted after the Fourth War! "And... Who was after Granny? The... Rokudaime?"

Hokage rolled his eyes, giving Naruto a dismissive pat on the head. "Nice try, but you're not getting anything outta me. You're gonna have to live through it all like I did."

"Naruto?" A woman's voice rang through the door, and Naruto turned at how familiar it sounded. He was certain he'd never heard that woman before, but maybe it was someone else...? A woman with pink hair entered the room, spotted Hokage, and let out a breath, relaxing. "You idiot," Sakura sighed. "I thought you outgrew pranks twenty years..."

She trailed off when she spotted Naruto, standing next to Shizune. He waved, smiling broadly. "Sakura? Whoa! You got big!" He spotted the diamond mark on her forehead. "Oh! You got Granny's chakra thingy! That's so awesome!"

Sakura groaned, giving Hokage a weary stare. "Really? You've been Hokage for three days, Naruto. Can't you go one day without a problem?"

Three days? Naruto tilted his head, running Sakura's words through his mind as he frowned. Would it really take him another twenty years before he made Hokage? "Aw, man. I gotta wait until I'm thirty before I get the hat?"

Hokage groaned, giving Sakura an exasperated glance. "Thanks for spoiling little me on that."

"Don't try to put any of this on me," Sakura replied, bending down. Her own hand glowed a bright green, and she tapped at the center of Naruto's forehead. "This is all you."

"Right." Hokage snorted, crossing his arms. "Just like yesterday's thing with Sarada wasn't on you."

"If Sasuke wasn't so against visiting his family, maybe Sarada wouldn't have run off." Sakura glibly replied as Naruto felt a faint tingly sensation. She nodded, and the sensation stopped as the hand pulled away. He blinked at the mention of Sasuke.

"Sasuke–" He made a face. "Sasuke has a family?"

His comment earned a cuff on the head, as Sakura snorted. "Yes. Me and Sarada, our child."

Wait.

 _What?_

"You didn't marry Sakura?!" Naruto practically screeched at Hokage, who shared a look with Sakura, before the both of them burst out laughing. Naruto turned a beseeching look at Shizune, who shook her head, ushering the medics out of the room.

"No," Hokage said when the laughter died down. "Well, if I did, then things would get really awkward with Hinata."

There was Hinata again. Naruto squinted. Boruto was obviously his future kid, and so was that other one, Hima-something-or-other, which meant... "You married _Hinata_?!"

"Yep." A wistful smile grew on Hokage's face, to counter the growing horror on Naruto's. "We've been together almost fifteen years, now. Her birthday's coming up soon, actually. But that's beside the point, which is: sometimes, your first love won't be the one you marry."

Naruto made a face. "But, but! Sakura loves Sasuke, and he was _her_ first love, so if they married, then–"

"I said sometimes," Hokage interrupted. "Not all the time. Sakura, is he healthy?"

"As healthy as someone his age should be," Sakura replied, standing up. "I healed him up just fine. Even healed that bite on his arm."

"You bit your arm?" Hokage raised a disapproving eyebrow, and Naruto picked at the gauze wrapped around his forearm, letting it fall to reveal healthy, unbitten skin.

"Whoa." He looked up, starry-eyed, at Sakura. "You're just as awesome as Granny! How could someone like you marry a jerk like Sasuke." He blinked, the wonder fading from his eyes. "Wait... did Sasuke... You brought him back?"

The question was directed at Hokage, who smiled. Naruto almost missed the sad look in his eyes. "It took a lot of talking, and a bit of butt kicking, but I did manage to knock some sense into his head."

Naruto whipped his head from the door to the window, and back again. "Well where is he? I wanna see how not awesome he looks next to you!"

In his fervor, Naruto missed the weighted glance Hokage and Sakura shared. Hokage chuckled, drawing Naruto's attention. "Later. For now, I'm gonna drop you off with Hinata, who should be at the academy picking up the kids with everyone else."

"Why don't I take him to the academy and pick up the kids, while _you_ go back to those notes, see what you can find about that Seal you activated. Maybe also call up Kakashi-Sensei, while you're at it."

"Fine," Hokage sighed, waving Sakura off. "But I'll call Shikamaru before I call Kakashi-Sensei. I already called him yesterday. It'll set a bad rep if I have to call him every day."

Naruto tried to talk to Hokage, tried to get an answer as he realized that neither Hokage nor Sakura had told him if Sasuke had come back, or even where he was.

 _At least there's the walk to the academy to look forward to_ , Naruto thought. Somewhere along the way, he _would_ get a straight answer out of Sakura about Sasuke.


	3. Adjustments

**It took so long to get this done because I had the toughest time pegging the personalities of the new generation. Wasn't until the other day that I actually made any headway. With any luck, this will be the longest wait between updates to this story.**

* * *

Naruto was distracted from his questioning by how the streets were different. They passed entire stores and crossed streets that Naruto didn't remember being there. Several times he spotted people talking into those strange radios (which, he was so stealing Hokage's just to find out what made the thing so much better than the current radios) but the strangest part of it all?

Nobody gave him dark looks. Nobody even gave him so much as a dismissive glance. One person even waved and greeted him with a "Nice afternoon, Boruto!"

It was the weirdest thing. It was like everyone was happy to see him. Even the people that shook their heads had weird smiles on their faces, smiles he'd only ever seen directed at well-liked kids.

"Are you _sure_ this isn't a genjutsu?" Naruto asked, squinting at the concerned looks he was getting.

"Huh?" Sakura glanced over, then rolled her eyes. "Only you, Naruto." She paused. "That's going to be weird, since you're both Naruto..."

"I'm calling older me Hokage," Naruto said, not missing how she didn't answer his question. "Now. Are you sure this isn't a genjutsu?"

"It isn't." Sakura patted him on the head. It was really weird. "This is your future."

Naruto glanced up at the stone carving of Kakashi-Sensei's face. "What kind of Hokage was Sensei even _like_?"

"Lazy," Sakura replied with a roll of the eyes. "He kept calling his appointment as keeping the hat warm while you – older you – took time off to date Hinata, marry her, have kids... you know. Normal person stuff."

Since when was he ever interested in normal person stuff? Since when was he even put in the same room as normal person stuff? What even _was_ normal person stuff?

His endless questioning died out as they turned another corner, onto yet another street Naruto didn't recognize. "Is this really Konoha?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure?" he asked. "Because I don't even know _half_ the streets we've walked past, you know?" He blinked, eyes widening in excitement. "Does it have to do with that Fourth War that Hokage won't tell me about? Was Sasuke there for the war? Did we kick ass together?"

"I forgot how chatty you were at that age." Sakura laughed, and Naruto felt his excitement die a horrible, horrible death. That was not the kind of laugh that came before answers. "Oh, we're almost there."

Naruto felt cheated out of answers. Maybe he'd have better luck getting something out of Hinata. She was quiet and kinda weird, but the kind of person he liked.

That thought died out as soon as the academy came into view. He spotted a kid his own age that looked almost entirely like him, smiling as he talked to what looked like a tiny version of Hinata. Both of them stood by the actual Hinata.

She looked strange, a lot stranger than he remembered her being. It took a moment before he realized what it was that she looked like: a mother. She looked exactly like the mothers Naruto had always felt envious of.

Also she was staring at him with a confused frown. "Naruto?"

The mini-Naruto – his son, that was Naruto's _son_ – glanced up, then made eye contact with Naruto. He glared. "Shitty old man, what the hell?"

It was strange, but Naruto was glad to find something that was familiar. He grinned big, because if he was this kid's dad, then he was going to make the most of it. "Is that any way to talk to your dad?"

Sakura thwacked him upside the head. Naruto was glad to see that the kid's hair puffed up in anger just like his did. The kid – actually, both kids, now that Naruto looked at them – had his cheek markings. That was... odd. He felt some sort of weird feeling in his chest, like that time he had the stomach flu, except this didn't feel quite like he was about to hurl his guts out. It felt more like... bigness. He liked it, but he didn't know _why_ he liked it.

"Naruto activated a Seal and summoned his younger self," Sakura said, because she was mean and awful and lived to ruin Naruto's fun. Now he couldn't ground his kids or shower them with the parental affection that he'd never had. He wanted to dad them into the _ground, dammit._ "He should be calling up Shikamaru and the two of them can figure out how to undo this."

She gestured at the entirety of Naruto. He would have felt betrayed, but he wanted to gesture at everything around him.

"Huh?" the kid said, and Naruto knew the look in his eyes all too well. It was those eyes, those damn eyes. Why would Naruto's _son_ have those eyes? The look disappeared, replaced by a sly grin that Naruto recognized as his own. "So you're my old man, huh?"

Naruto squinted, then grinned right back. "Yep! I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

The kid stuck out his hand. "I'm Uzumaki Boruto! Let's be friends!"

* * *

Naruto didn't know what to think about either of his kids. He didn't know what to think about that, either. Never had he ever imagined a future where he had a family.

Boruto's reaction to him was familiar, something easy and simple for him to cling to in this strange new world. It was almost enough to forget that this was the future, that he was trying to get his own son to recognize him.

"So I painted the monument!" Naruto exclaimed, laughing. "They were _so_ mad, even Iruka-Sensei came to yell at me!"

"You too, huh?" Boruto grumbled, crossing his arms and looking away. "I did that the other day, you know."

Naruto tilted his head. He didn't want to know the reason why Boruto did it, but he knew perfectly well why _he himself_ had done it. "You give any of them nosebleeds? Write that they're pervs?"

Boruto snorted. He opened his mouth to say something, when his mom (it was easier to think of her as just being Boruto's mom, and not Hinata) bopped him on the head. She gave him a gentle smile as he rubbed the spot and glared. "Don't get ideas."

"Mo~m," Boruto whined, looking like a sad puppy. Naruto felt something he hadn't felt since graduation day from the academy: envy. He felt envious of his own son. Maybe it was just because Boruto looked so much like himself, but he wanted that. He wanted a mom who doted on him, wanted the fond way Boruto looked at his mom. He _wanted_.

But what he got was an empty apartment. What he got was cold glares from all the adults around him. What he got was distance and hardness and painful loneliness.

"Naruto?" He was snapped out of his thoughts by Boruto's mom turning her attention to him. "Is everything okay?"

Naruto laughed, sticking his hands behind his head. "Everything's fine! I'm just getting used to all this, you know."

"Hey!" Boruto cried, stopping and pointing at Naruto. "You do it too!"

Naruto tilted his head and squinted, his grin slipping away into a confused frown. "Huh?"

"You say 'you know' too!" Boruto declared, then bopped a fist into an open hand. "This is why he keeps laughing every time I say it, you know!"

Naruto stared at Boruto, before laughing. Boruto went red, but before he could go off his mom was bustling them all along, talking about how it was getting late and dinner still needed to be made.

Behind them, Himawari hid a smile behind her hand.

* * *

Naruto avoided dinner as best he could, sneaking a plate away into one of the side rooms and munching away. Boruto had glared at him, muttered something about how some things never changed, while his mom sighed and let him go.

The room he was currently in looked a lot like the Hokage's personal office, only the desk had some sort of weird thing on it. He thought it was a computer, only it couldn't be. Computers were these _huge_ things that took up a whole room– whatever that tiny little thing sitting atop the desk was, it couldn't have been that.

Naruto finished his plate, and set it atop the desk for now. He wandered over to the bookshelf, looking for a scroll or something that had the history of the last twenty years in it. Sakura, and her daughter Sarada (a strange bespectacled girl who, after learning who Naruto was, tried to bombard him with all sorts of questions), had been less than eager to explain what that Fourth War was, or even where Sasuke was.

Unfortunately, Hokage's bookshelf was low on scrolls, instead having actual books in them, from long and complicated titles whose only words he understood were 'jutsu theory', to books on politics. He even saw several dictionaries, for crying out loud. Who even _needed_ six dictionaries!

The door clicked open, and Naruto stepped away from the bookshelf with a yelp. The girl walked in, quietly shutting the door behind her "So you're papa?"

"Um." Naruto didn't know what to say to the girl.

"I know you aren't really him," she said. "You look like him from his old photos."

She opened the door again, and pointed at Naruto's old team photo, hanging on the wall. There were a lot of photos there, of Hinata's team, and of Hokage and Hinata together, and of the two with their kids at different points in Boruto and the girl's lives. Naruto squinted at the picture of the Yondaime, and spent half a second wondering why that was there before dismissing it. Maybe he just kept it as a reminder to be a more awesome Hokage than even the Yondaime.

"Uh," Naruto said. "What's your name?"

"Himawari," the girl replied, shutting the door again. She grinned. "Did you really call the other Hokage pervs when you painted the monument?"

Naruto grinned. "Painted it right across their faces."

"Even Grandpa Kakashi's?" Himawari asked, and Naruto felt his grin tighten.

"Kakashi-Sensei wasn't Hokage," Naruto said, because it was the truth. "There were only four faces when I painted them."

Himawari's eyes got wide, and Naruto saw that she had the Hyuga eyes. He wondered if she had the Byakugan like Hinata and Neji. He wondered if Boruto had the Byakugan. "I knew it!"

"Knew what?"

"Papa keeps saying that he isn't old, but he _is_ ," Himawari triumphantly said. "Grandpa Kakashi's so old he has to have been Hokage for _forever_."

Naruto, despite himself, found Himawari to be a likable person. Even if she did think Hokage was really, really old.

He grinned. "Is Granny Tsunade still looking young? Because she's a whole lot older than even Kakashi-Sensei!"

Himawari snorted into her hand, holding herself together as she laughed. "Lady Tsunade isn't old! She looks younger than Mama!"

"It's a lie," Naruto said matter-of-factly. "That diamond on her forehead keeps her looking young, but she's as old as Pervy Sage!" He grinned. "Man, he must look _awful_!"

"Who's Pervy Sage?" Himawari asked, squinting in confusion.

"You know, Pervy Sage." Naruto didn't know whether to be glad that Hokage hadn't introduced the man to his family, or feel another of those strange emotions Hokage's family kept making him feel. "Really big, white hair, Summons toads?"

"Oh!" Himawari exclaimed. "You mean Jiraiya?"

"Yeah!" Naruto nodded. "He's–"

"Dead," Himawari finished for him. Naruto's grin faltered. "He died when Papa was fifteen."

He... what?

Naruto kept up the grin, trying not to let it show. He was thirteen now, and if she was right, then that meant that he only had a little over two years left with the guy. "Oh?"

"Yeah." Himawari nodded, unaware of how broken inside Naruto felt. "One of his old students fought him and he died. Then the student came here and destroyed the village. Then Papa came, and fought the student, and talked the student into becoming good!"

Naruto nodded, ill at ease. He was liking this future less and less. "Why did the student kill him?"

"Because the student was a bad person!" Himawari said. "He was with bad people that wanted to take Papa!"

"Akatsuki?" Naruto asked, feeling detached from everything. Himawari blinked, lost.

"I dunno," she said. "Papa says they were bad people."

"Right." Naruto picked up the empty plate. "I should go put this away. Don't want your mom to get angry with me."

"Mama wouldn't do that," Himawari said. "Papa sometimes eats in here too."

"He does?" Naruto looked around, really looked around this time, and saw a beat up couch to one side, with what looked like a small army of throw pillows scattered across it, and a fuzzy blanket draped over the back. "Does he fall asleep here too?"

Himawari shrugged. "I dunno. Papa stays up past bedtime a lot."

"Right," Naruto said again. He really wasn't liking this future. Even if there were some pretty neat things about it. Maybe in the morning, he would find out some answers, and something to like.


	4. Pancakes and Plans

**So this is one of the two scenes I originally had for this chapter, but it ran so long that I decided to make it all of chapter four. Expect it to be a while for chapter five while I grapple with Naruto meeting the rest of the New Generation kids, which I wanted to have for this chapter. It felt easier to have this than to have you wait several weeks before I pin down the next scene. Expect a really long chapter next time, with so much added to it.**

* * *

The most uncomfortable thing about the couch was that it felt so comfortable, so worn in to someone sleeping on it. It mattered a lot more than Naruto liked to admit, despite the faint outline of someone much taller and larger than him. He managed to wave off everyone's concerns, and took the couch in the study over a guest room.

In any other place, in any other time (and wasn't _that_ a phrase Naruto was going to use a lot until Hokage managed to find a way to get him back home), Naruto could have fallen asleep easily. Instead, he tossed and turned and got just enough sleep to be sleep, but it didn't feel particularly restful. He wondered if this was what Gaara felt like, unable to get truly restful sleep.

He shuffled out of the room, stopping when he smelled something in the air. Naruto squinted, trying to figure out what it was. It was food, that was for certain, but it didn't smell like toast or something going bad. It smelled almost like the bakery he passed on the way to the academy, but not quiet.

"Naruto!" He blinked, finding a small hand wrapped around his own and pulling him to a huge table in a room all its own. Boruto seemed to scowl at him, irritated. "You're awake. Good. C'mon, Mom said to get you for breakfast."

Boruto sounded like he said that a lot, but Naruto couldn't find it in himself to ask. Not until he got some milk and a sandwich in him. Then he could head off to find Hokage and–

Naruto's line of thought exploded like a poorly made explosive tag when he saw the table. Food was piled everywhere on it, from thick slices of bacon to weird round bread-things. "Uh."

"Mom decided to make an extra-big breakfast since you're here!" Himawari chirped from behind a huge tower of the bread-things.

"What are those?" Naruto felt himself say, getting pushed into the seat beside Himawari, while Boruto took the seat opposite him. "Those round things?"

"Mom's famous pancakes," Boruto replied, creating his own tower and drenching it in a honey-like liquid. Boruto held out the saucer the liquid came from. "Syrup?"

"Uh." Naruto took it, setting it down beside his plate. "Pancakes?"

"Yes." Hinata walked in from the kitchen with a pitcher of milk, setting it between the plates of food and sitting down on the side adjacent to Himawari. The fourth side of the table had an empty chair, and Naruto suspected if Hokage was meant to sit there. "I remember how much you used to eat at that age. Boruto's not as old as you, and Himawari's still young, but they still eat everything in sight." She made a gesture, picking up a fork and stabbing several of the pancakes onto her own plate. "Go on. Eat."

"...alright." Naruto picked up a lone pancake, nibbling on it curiously. He froze, amazed at how delicious it was. Naruto stuffed the entire thing in his mouth, in love with it. He chewed and swallowed enough that he could speak, and already had two more pancakes in his hands. "Holy shit these are awesome!"

Boruto coughed, and Himawari gasped. The two of them stared at Naruto like he'd done something wrong, and he carefully lowered the pancakes and swallowed again. He looked from one to the other, and then to Hinata, who looked to be badly stifling her laughter. Frowning, Naruto said, "What?"

"You just said a bad word," Boruto said, awed. He got stars in his eyes and a huge grin spread over his face. "I didn't know you even _knew_ any bad words, Dad!"

Naruto choked on air, reaching for the pitcher of milk to help clear out his throat. "You..." Naruto rasped, feeling off-kilter. This wasn't even close to his area of expertise. The most he'd ever encountered kids younger than himself was Konohamaru, and the idolization there had only lasted an hour, if that. Naruto had no idea what to do when the object of hero worship was _himself_. "I... shit."

A spoon knocked into Naruto, and the same happened to Boruto. Hinata sat straight in her seat, the amusement gone. "No swearing. I will get the soap if you repeat any of those words, either of you."

Hinata grimly stared from Boruto to Himawari, and Naruto sniggered. Then she turned her gaze on him, and he burst into laughter. "Kids," Naruto managed to get out between giggles, "l-listen to your mom."

The laughter died out soon after he said that, and Naruto didn't feel quite so hungry. He mostly poked at the pancakes left on his plate, and watched Boruto and Himawari. If he squinted, he could see how they looked like him, like how Himawari had his nose even if she had Hinata's ey– "OH!" he pointed at her. "Oooooooh!"

"Are you having a moment?" Boruto asked, wary of how Naruto was flailing. Himawari, for her part, just leaned away from Naruto.

"Hyuga!" Naruto exclaimed. "Hyuga eyes!"

"Yes," Hinata said. "She's got my eyes. Naruto – my husband, I mean – says that she's also developed the Byakugan."

"I don't got the eyes," Boruto grumbled, and Naruto wasn't going near _that_ bundle of emotional mess. Louder, he said, "What about 'em?"

"She's– Hyuga–" Naruto waved a hand at Himawari's forehead. "Branch!"

"Oh!" Hinata set down her fork, reaching over to take Naruto's hand in her own. "The family stopped the practice, Naruto. It ended with Hanabi's succession as leader. Neji would be proud."

"Yeah, Mom and Himawari visit Uncle Neji's grave _all the time_ ," Boruto complained, and Naruto started.

"Neji's– he's _dead_?" Naruto couldn't bring himself to be surprised anymore, only shocked and saddened and all these other hurt feelings he'd only really felt in the moments he'd woken, carried on Kakashi-Sensei's back after the failed retrieval mission. Neji was brilliant, was powerful, He couldn't have just died. "How?"

Boruto frowned. "Uncle Neji died in–"

"Boruto!" Hinata hissed, and both children shrank in on themselves. Naruto watched it all happen, tears blurring the edges of his vision. What kind of awful future was this, that Neji was dead and apparently everyone had known who his parents were but no one was ever gonna tell him and apparently he was the kind of parent that was never home, that slept on a couch in his office. This was wrong, all of it.

He wanted it all to change.

"Tell me." He blinked away the tears, focusing on his anger. "Tell me everything."

"I don't think I should." Hinata didn't look at him, but Naruto could hear it in her voice. She knew too. She knew, just like the other adults. It was just like before, with everyone in on the secret but him.

"Tell me!" Naruto commanded. "I've had enough of people keeping things from me. How did Neji die?"

"It was on Dad's birthday," Boruto said, speaking fast so Hinata couldn't stop him.

"Boruto _no_!" Hinata said, trying to speak over him, but he rose his voice so Naruto could hear.

"Dad turned seventeen and Uncle Neji died protecting him in the fourth wa-umph!" Boruto's mouth was covered by Hinata's, and she smiled gently at Naruto.

"The fourth war, huh?" Naruto said, sounding bitter.

Hinata sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't know if you wanted– if you should–"

"Oh, no it's fine." Naruto waved her off, picking up a pancake and biting into it. It tasted fluffy and warm and what he thought love tasted like. "Not like I'm not used to this," he said, between bites. "Just figured things would be different when I was older."

Hinata faltered, looking away. "Boruto can take you to the library later. There's records there that have all the answers you want."

"If you say so," Naruto said, finishing the pancake. He raised the other one to his mouth, only to have Himawari gently take hold of his arm and lower the pancake onto the plate.

"You're eating them wrong," she said. "Pancakes are a fancy breakfast food." She leaned forward, as if imparting a great secret. "Use the fork."

Naruto grinned, picking up the fork and stabbing the pancake. He lifted the pancake up by the fork, staring at it. Shrugging, Naruto returned to eating the pancake. As much as he wanted to keep angry, it was easier just to... not. Anger was exhausting, and it never did anything good for him. All it really ever did was make the emptiness feel larger, and hurt more.

"Haven't you ever had pancakes before?" Boruto asked, squinting at Naruto in the same way Naruto often squinted at others. It unnerved him, how similar Boruto and Himawari were to him.

Naruto shrugged, taking another bite. "Nope." He used his free hand to point to the half-eaten pancake. "These are _really good_. Like, awesome good."

"Swallow before you talk, Boruto," Hinata said, before stopping. Naruto felt a shiver crawl along his shoulders, and swallowed. Hinata looked stricken. "Naruto, I'm sorry, it's just–"

"He really does look a lot like me," Boruto said, and Naruto tried so hard not to think about that, about how much they looked alike. Looking at Boruto was like looking into a bad mirror, seeing different parts of himself reflected there but in a way that Naruto didn't get when he looked at his clones. "It's kinda weird."

"Papa has shorter hair," Himawari said, setting her fork down to pull her hair back. Like that, Naruto could see his own face in hers, and felt something twist in his gut.

"Yeah, but that's because he didn't want to look like grandpa, you know," Boruto waved his hand, dismissing the claim. Naruto nearly asked what Boruto was talking about, what did grandpa look like? What did Naruto's father look like? Did he look like his father? He tried to imagine someone that looked like himself, but older, and all that his mind came up with was Hokage. "You really never had pancakes before?"

"Nope." Naruto shook his head, finishing the pancake and reaching for another. He paused, looking at the bacon. On a whim, Naruto snagged a slice of bacon, biting into and tearing a piece off. "Never had bacon before, neither."

"Either," Hinata absentmindedly corrected, watching Naruto sadly.

"Whatever." Naruto finished the bacon, and went back to the pancakes. He paused. "How much did this all cost? Because I can totally pay you back or clean up the kitchen or–"

"You don't have to do any of that," Hinata waved him off. "Just... finish your breakfast and Boruto can take you to the library and help you there."

"Mo~om!" Boruto complained, and Naruto didn't know why he would ever talk back to his mother. If Naruto were in Boruto's position, he'd do whatever his own mother would ask of him. "Why can't the old man take care of him? They are the same person!"

"Your father's very busy trying to solve this problem," Hinata explained. "He called earlier to say that Naruto should stay either here or be escorted around town by you."

"I don't want to do escort him, you know!" Boruto protested in the same time Naruto said, "I don't need escorted, you know!"

The two of them looked at each other, having said the same phrase at the same time, in the same tone. Both Himawari and Hinata hid their laughter, although Hinata's was hidden beneath a smile.

"Now you understand why I say that you're just like your father when he was your age," she said, and Naruto bristled. He still didn't like getting compared with Boruto, and instead jabbed at Himawari.

"I'm taking her with me," Naruto declared. "Because I like her, unlike you."

Boruto sulked, while Hinata looked from Naruto to Himawari in surprise. Naruto looked determined, and Himawari looked excited at being included. "I suppose you can..."

"Yes!" Himawari cheered, climbing out of her seat and pulling Naruto along. "I'm done let's go!"

"Hey!" Boruto cried out, while Naruto let himself get pulled along, before slinging Himawari onto his back like he'd seen some parents do. "Wait for me!"

Naruto laughed, and from where she was perched on his shoulders, Himawari laughed too. Behind them, still at the table, Hinata called out, "No leaving the house until you put on clean clothes!"

Naruto froze, Boruto bumping into him. He glanced down at the hospital scrubs. "Um." He looked at Boruto, comparing their sizes. "You're too small for me."

"Huh?" Boruto blinked, confused, before he realized what Naruto was talking about. "Hey! I could totally wear your clothes if I wanted to!"

"That's not what he's saying." Hinata came up, plucking Himawari off of Naruto's shoulders and shooing her down the hallway. "Boruto, you're eleven. Naruto here is thirteen. He's too big to borrow your clothes."

"What?" Boruto squinted, still confused, before understanding hit. "Oh! Ew! I don't want my dad wearing my underwear!"

"I don't want to wear your underwear!" Naruto cried out, waving his hands in front of him, trying to ward away the thought.

"I think we've still got one of your old jumpsuits boxed up somewhere," Hinata mumbled, leading the two blonds down the hallway. They passed a door marked as Boruto's room, one marked as Himawari's, the study, a bathroom and a linen closet, and entered a spare room filled with old boxes. Hinata began peering into boxes, muttering to herself. Boruto lingered at the door, curious but not enough to enter the room.

Naruto wandered through the stacks of boxes. He peeked into one, and felt his stomach lurch as he was presented with a box full of toys. Wooden building blocks and colorful plastic shuriken and cloth dolls staring back at him with plastic eyes. He shut the box, tried the next one. Pastel onesies with huge kanji written across them that said things like "I'm adorable" and "Hokage material".

He quickly shut the box, avoiding peeking in others. Down the way, near the wall, Hinata held up a box triumphantly. "Found you!"

She carried the box out into the living room, with Naruto and Boruto following. Opening the lid, Hinata held up Naruto's jumpsuit. His stomach lurched at the fist-sized hole through the right side of the jacket, near the shoulder.

"Wow," Boruto said, snagging the jacket out of Hinata's hands. He held it up, looking at Naruto through the hole? "What did you do to this?"

"Sasuke." Naruto dug through the box, finding his pants (also ragged, with stains that looked suspiciously like dried blood and mud), one of his shirts, and managing to dig up a pair of okay-looking boxers.

"What did he do, try to grab you?" Boruto stuck an arm through the holes experimentally. Blood stained the edges of the holes a dark brown.

"He tried to kill me." Naruto rubbed at his chest, recalling the numbness he had felt. Shock, he guessed, was what kept him from feeling anything. "That was two days ago."

"That was over twenty years ago," Hinata gently explained, taking the jacket and folding it back into the box. "And you've more than made up for it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked, but Hinata shook her head, bustling Naruto off into the bathroom to change. Boruto stared after him, his brow furrowed as he looked from Naruto to the box and back.


End file.
